]]>https://mattandallison.wordpress.com/2017/08/29/out-of-storage-space/feed/1mattandallisonLonesome Mountainhttps://mattandallison.wordpress.com/2017/08/01/lonesome-mountain/
https://mattandallison.wordpress.com/2017/08/01/lonesome-mountain/#commentsWed, 02 Aug 2017 01:30:07 +0000http://mattandallison.wordpress.com/?p=2017Alex and I had one more day to kill in Montana before flying back to Ohio, so at the last minute we decided to explore a different corner of the state. Up until the day before, we had been planning to use Sunday to climb Sphinx Mountain in the Madison Range near Big Sky. Instead, we drove 4+ hours to the Beartooth Range just south of Red Lodge.

We set off around 6:30 AM, and reached the road to the Spirit Mountain trailhead around 10:30 AM. Unfortunately, the last 7 miles was a very rough dirt road…a little too rough to attempt with the rental car. We’d known this might be a possibility based on internet reports, so had already printed maps for our Plan B: Lonesome Mountain. This required another short (but scenic) drive over Beartooth Pass to the Wyoming side of the range. (The mountain itself is located a few hundred yards north of the Montana border, but most of the approach is in Wyoming).

Beartooth Pass

We set out from the Beartooth Lake trailhead and made good time for the first few miles on well established trails. We eventually had to leave the trail and travel another couple miles across open country to the foot of Lonesome Mountain.

View toward Lonesome Mountain, just before leaving the trail

The landscape was pretty amazing; the only real downside was the mosquitoes.

Mountain terrain; view to the west

Climbing the south ramp of Lonesome Mountain

As with Wilson Peak a couple days before, most of the climb was straightforward class 2 rock-hopping.

Panoramic shot from the foot of Lonesome Mountain

We scrambled up a few light class 3 sections, but even most of these are probably avoidable with enough patience and careful route-finding.

Easy scrambling

We made the summit 3 hours 4 minutes after leaving the trailhead, although it definitely felt longer.

Topping out at the summit

After a short rest on the summit, we retraced our steps back to the trail, then opted for a slightly longer return trip by continuing east on the main trail – eventually looping back to the trailhead at Beartooth Lake. In terms of scenery this was probably a top 3 climb for me, personally.

Total distance was 12.6 miles, with 3042′ of elevation gain. It took us 6 hours 24 minutes including stops.

]]>https://mattandallison.wordpress.com/2017/08/01/lonesome-mountain/feed/1mattandallisonYellowstone National Park, 2017https://mattandallison.wordpress.com/2017/08/01/yellowstone-national-park-2017/
https://mattandallison.wordpress.com/2017/08/01/yellowstone-national-park-2017/#commentsTue, 01 Aug 2017 18:56:35 +0000http://mattandallison.wordpress.com/?p=2011On day 3 of the wilderness medicine conference, Alex and I decided to take things easy after having hiked the equivalent of a marathon (and roughly 8000′ elevation gain) over the previous 48 hours. So we drove down to Yellowstone and checked out some of the geysers, hot springs, and waterfalls. Nothing groundbreaking, but a few pictures:

Mystic Falls

hot & malodorous water

Bison causing a traffic jam

]]>https://mattandallison.wordpress.com/2017/08/01/yellowstone-national-park-2017/feed/1mattandallisonWilson Peak, Montanahttps://mattandallison.wordpress.com/2017/08/01/wilson-peak-montana/
https://mattandallison.wordpress.com/2017/08/01/wilson-peak-montana/#commentsTue, 01 Aug 2017 18:38:12 +0000http://mattandallison.wordpress.com/?p=1997On our second day in Montana, Alex and I decided to tackle a slightly more ambitious climb. When conference ended around noon, we drove a short distance from Big Sky to the Dudley Creek trailhead and spent most of the rest of the day climbing Wilson Peak (10,705′).

The peak itself is one of the more prominent high points on the skyline, seen from Big Sky resort:

Wilson Peak, seen from Big Sky

The first 5 miles is a gradual uphill climb – on a well maintained trail – to Dudley Lake.

A couple miles up the trail

Ascending the trail to Dudley Lake

This 5 mile stretch gains ~2800 vertical feet, leaving another 1.25 miles and ~1500 vertical feet of off-trail climbing. The climb itself is mostly easy class 2, with the exception of a 50-60 foot summit block requiring a few class 3 moves.

Climbing up from Dudley Lake (seen below)

Alex standing on a ridge, just below the summit

One of the class 3 sections

More class 3

We reached the summit in a little under 4 hours. We spent 20 minutes or so taking pictures and eating some snacks, before we decided to start heading for the car.

Summit Panorama

There were several ominous storms on the horizon, along with the occasional rumble of distant thunder, but fortunately we never had to deal with more than a few light sprinkles or rain on the return trip.

Descending

The entire round trip took 6:41, including rest stops. Total vertical gain was 4578′. Total distance was 12.5 miles.

]]>https://mattandallison.wordpress.com/2017/08/01/wilson-peak-montana/feed/2mattandallisonBighorn Peak, Yellowstone NPhttps://mattandallison.wordpress.com/2017/08/01/bighorn-peak-yellowstone-np/
https://mattandallison.wordpress.com/2017/08/01/bighorn-peak-yellowstone-np/#commentsTue, 01 Aug 2017 18:09:22 +0000http://mattandallison.wordpress.com/?p=1989Last week I attended the National Conference on Wilderness Medicine in Big Sky, Montana, along with four other ER residents from my program. During our free time, Alex and I took advantage of the opportunity to squeeze in some hiking.

Picture with Jordan Spieth

As a side note, we ended up sharing a flight with Jordan Spieth from Dallas to Bozeman, so we got to meet him and get some pictures. He’d just won the British Open a few days before, but was flying in coach with his family, then stood in line with us at Budget to rent a car.

Our conference sessions took place mostly during the mornings, so the first afternoon Alex and I drove down to the edge of Yellowstone NP to hike to the top of Bighorn Peak (9,930′), just north of the Wyoming border.

Bull Moose

A couple miles into the hike, I looked up to our right and spotted two bull moose. They kept a close eye on us for a few minutes, then wandered off into the trees. I turned to Alex and said, “You know, the last time I ran into a bull moose this close, Allison and I saw two grizzlies just a few minutes later…so keep your eyes peeled.” (Here’s the LINK, from 2012)

Almost exactly five minutes later, I looked up again and saw a bear.

There’s a bear over there

Of course we hadn’t brought bear spray (not allowed in carry-on bags), but fortunately he didn’t get aggressive with us. Just stared us down for 30 seconds ago, then climbed up onto a fallen tree and slowly moved away.

We didn’t see much more wildlife after that, and managed to reach the summit 20 minutes or so before a thunderstorm rolled in. This gave us just enough time to jog back downhill and under tree cover.

Standing atop Bighorn Peak

The total round trip distance ended up at 12.2 miles, with 3,178′ elevation gain.

]]>https://mattandallison.wordpress.com/2017/08/01/bighorn-peak-yellowstone-np/feed/1mattandallison2017 Nitrogaine IIIhttps://mattandallison.wordpress.com/2017/07/04/2017-nitrogaine-iii/
https://mattandallison.wordpress.com/2017/07/04/2017-nitrogaine-iii/#commentsTue, 04 Jul 2017 18:28:48 +0000http://mattandallison.wordpress.com/?p=1976The weekend before last (June 24-25), my brother and I drove up to Michigan for an 8 hour overnight rogaine. The course was similar to last year’s race (link), but slightly more compact and with some interesting new flag locations.

My brother and I were both pretty exhausted before the race even started – he was coming off a 24 hour EMS shift, and I had just finished a week in the ICU and was getting ready to start another 80-90 hour work week on Monday. So we ended up doing a lot more hiking than jogging.

Getting ready to start

Maps were distributed at 8pm, so we spent the next couple hours planning our route before the race started at 10pm.

Course map

We started with a short loop, hitting #43, #40, and #31 before making our way to the southeast section of the map – a newly added area since last year. We found #35 easily enough after plowing through chest-high grass under some power lines.

Searching for #35

Our first of two big blunders came when we missed the turnoff for #57. We considered doubling back when we realized the mistake, but decided to just skip it. We continued on to #54 and #68 with no more problems, then started making our way westward along the southern edge of the map. This area was pretty rich in points, and the trail network allowed for quick movement. We picked off #59, #65, #77, #75, #32, and #34, then jogged down the road to another trail, which we followed to #47, #37, #64, #35, #76, #39, #66, and #44…each requiring only a short ~2-10 minute detour off trail.

We were tempted to go for three high-value controls along a peninsula on the southwest edge of the course, which would have required a more extended off-trail bushwhack…but I had some bad memories of getting tangled up in briars in that section last year, so we instead doubled back along one of the main roads toward the center of the map. Along the way we went for #71, but managed to miss it completely (our second major blunder of the night, costing us 70 points and at least 10-15 minutes). Looking back at the GPS track after the race, it looks like we overshot it and ended up making a large circle around #71. Oh well.

Tagging one of the controls…I think maybe #76?

The central section of the map was also pretty densely packed with controls, but unfortunately we were starting to feel a little pressed for time, and wanted to leave ourselves enough flexibility to get the handful of high-value controls near the start/finish area. So instead of clearing this entire area, we made a short loop of #33, #67, #52, and #81 (skipping #42, #56, and #74). This left us enough time to clear most of the rest of the controls near the start/finish area. We finished the race by hitting #63, #60, #80 (which we nearly missed…it was tough to spot on a small island in the middle of a swamp, accessible only by a small wooden plank, or by swimming), #79, #78 (we were running, by this point), and finally #46.

Outline of our route

GPS track

We finished with a few minutes to spare, and ended up placing 9th out of 21 teams. Had it not been for those two dumb mistakes, we’d have finished 6th, so overall not too bad.

Our total distance for the night was 19.5 miles, with 2,060 feet of elevation gain. By the time I drove home, took the boys to the Dayton Air show the following day, and finally made it to bed, I’d been awake for more than 32 hours…so my memory of this race is unfortunately kind of hazy.

]]>https://mattandallison.wordpress.com/2017/07/04/2017-nitrogaine-iii/feed/1mattandallisonSmoky Mountain Day Hikes 2017https://mattandallison.wordpress.com/2017/06/13/smoky-mountain-day-hikes-2017/
https://mattandallison.wordpress.com/2017/06/13/smoky-mountain-day-hikes-2017/#commentsTue, 13 Jun 2017 19:23:34 +0000http://mattandallison.wordpress.com/?p=1964I added some photos of our day hikes in the Smokies (for a full write-up, see Allison’s posts HERE and HERE).

The first day hiking with the boys – an out and back to Cane Gap (7.9 miles, 893 feet elevation gain, a couple miles of which was just Dad, Caroline and I). We’d initially planned to make a loop via the Rabbit Creek trail, but had to change plans to avoid wading across a knee-deep stream with no bridge crossings.

Micah at our cabin

The next day we did a 5.1 mile out-and-back hike to Abrams Falls.

Micah at Abrams Falls

Allison and Ezra on the Abrams Falls hike

Day 3 was a short walk up to the top of Clingman’s Dome, followed by a short stretch on the Appalachian Trail.

Micah on Clingman’s Dome

Ezra on Clingman’s Dome

Day 4 was the 26.1 mile mega-hike that I did with Trent (see previous post).

On day 5, we took a short 1.1 mile hike to Cataract Falls, then went into town for a game of putt-putt golf (Allison+Ezra came in 4th, I came in 3rd, Micah came in 2nd, and Grandma R won by a stroke).

Cataract Falls

Micah golfing

]]>https://mattandallison.wordpress.com/2017/06/13/smoky-mountain-day-hikes-2017/feed/1mattandallisonGreat Smoky Mountains End-to-End (Smokemont to Gatlinburg)https://mattandallison.wordpress.com/2017/06/05/great-smoky-mountains-end-to-end-smokemont-to-gatlinburg/
https://mattandallison.wordpress.com/2017/06/05/great-smoky-mountains-end-to-end-smokemont-to-gatlinburg/#commentsMon, 05 Jun 2017 18:14:54 +0000http://mattandallison.wordpress.com/?p=1950Last week we met my parents and sister Caroline for a week in the Smokies (separate blog post incoming), and my brother and his girlfriend Kelsey were able to come for a few days too. My brother and I spent Friday (6/2/17) completing another one of my bucket list hikes – a south to north traverse of Great Smoky Mountain National Park. (Roughly speaking, that is…technically we started about a quarter mile inside the southern border, and finished about a quarter mile outside the northern border).

Total distance 26.1 miles; total elevation gain 6,164 feet.

We left Trent’s car in Gatlinburg, and Dad was nice enough to drop us off in Smokemont at 6:30 am so we could get an early start.

Climbing up toward the AT

The first 4 miles or so was a very gradual uphill walk along a stream, so we knocked it out in just a little over one hour. After that, the trail began winding more steeply uphill for another 4+ miles until connecting with the Appalachian Trail, just east of Charlies Bunyon.

View from the AT

Fortunately we reached the higher elevations before the heat of the day set in, and stayed above 4000 feet for most of the day.

Near Charlies Bunyon

Charlies Bunyon

We followed the Appalachian Trail for a few miles before joining up with the Boulevard Trail, which we followed for another ~5.4 miles to the top of Mt. LeConte. Along the way we stopped for a short detour to see the Jump Off – a steep cliff offering some more partially cloud-obstructed views.

Trent and I at the Jump Off

We made it to Mt. Leconte around 1pm, taking another detour along the way to see Myrtle Point.

Myrtle Point

“True Summit” of LeConte

There are 5 different trails leading to the Summit of Mt. Leconte, with lots of interesting history and “trail records” between them (fastest time to climb all 5 trails, most total times climbing all 5 trails, fastest time up and down each of the 5 trails, etc.). About a year and a half ago, Trent and I got to do 3 of the 5 trails by climbing LeConte twice in a day (SEE HERE).

So by ascending via the Boulevard and descending via Rainbow Falls, we were able to finish #4 and #5 to complete the list. Interestingly, the Bullhead Trail which we did previously is now closed because of damage from the wildfires last year.

Areas of fire damage on the Rainbow Falls trail

Looking down toward Gatlinburg from halfway up LeConte

Rainbow Falls

We finished almost exactly 11 hours after leaving from Smokemont, including an hour or so of breaks for food, pictures, etc.

]]>https://mattandallison.wordpress.com/2017/06/05/great-smoky-mountains-end-to-end-smokemont-to-gatlinburg/feed/2mattandallisonStokesville 24 Hour Rogaine – 2017 Editionhttps://mattandallison.wordpress.com/2017/05/09/stokesville-24-hour-rogaine-2017-edition/
https://mattandallison.wordpress.com/2017/05/09/stokesville-24-hour-rogaine-2017-edition/#commentsWed, 10 May 2017 02:05:21 +0000http://mattandallison.wordpress.com/?p=1934This was my second consecutive year doing the Stokesville Rogaine – a 24 hour navigation/adventure race in the mountains near the Virginia & West Virginia border. You can read about last year’s race with my friend Phil HERE.

This year I again signed up for the 24 hour option, and Bruce joined in to race the 6 hour option.

Our campsite for the weekend

We camped out overnight on Friday, then got up early on Saturday morning to collect our maps at 0700. The window for starting was 0800-1000, after which I’d have 24 hours to collect as many points as possible. We spent awhile mapping out our route, then headed off at 0847.

Getting ready to start

The weather was a little cool (high 30’s at night, high 50’s during the day) and there was some light rain off and on, but overall much more favorable conditions than Phil and I deal with last year. There had, however, been heavy rain a couple nights before, so many of the local streams and rivers were flooded – necessitating a few last minute adjustments on the course. A few controls were re-located, and one of the larger rivers that Phil and I had waded across last year was not only passable via several bridges.

Course map, for those who want to follow along

Bruce and I stayed together for the first 3 hours or so, grabbing #31 and #44 on our way out of the campground. From there we worked our way along a steep hillside adjacent to one of the flooded rivers, until we found #51 (one of the controls that had to be repositioned to higher ground after the flooding).

Looking back southeast in the direction of #51

On our way to #62, Bruce and I briefly got separated when he doubled back to grab something he’d dropped, but we met back up around #62. The terrain was very steep in some areas, so it was slow going.

One of the cliffs alongside the river

Our pace improved over the next few hours; we climbed the ridge to our west and met up with a trail, which we followed uneventfully to #77, #72, and eventually to #95 atop Lookout Mountain.

Bruce collecting #77

We parted ways on Lookout Mountain. I went on to collect #45 before heading toward the western half of the map, while Bruce finished his 6 hour loop hitting #45 followed by a handful of other controls closer to the campground (I was saving these for the following morning).

Control #95 atop Lookout Mountain

After #45, I took my first real foray into the woods, collecting #65 and #76 by side-sloping more than a mile of steep, trail-less terrain. I was a little out of practice having not done a rogaine in nearly a year, but was able to manage by carefully counting each of the reentrants and spurs as I moved west, and guessing as best I could at the elevation. No issues with these two. I met back up with another dirt access road, which I then followed back to the main road and one of the bridge crossings.

This is where I made probably the dumbest error of the day. I’d decided to forego several of the controls between Trimble Mountain and North River Gorge in order to save time, so I picked up #43 and then continued northwest up the road. In hindsight, it would have only taken an extra 15-20 minutes and minimal effort to double back for the higher value #84, which was only ~600 meters further to the east. Instead I went for #54 (which had apparently been lost/stolen…so I never found it, but got credit regardless).

From here my thought was to grab #42, #64, #81, and #71 before hiking back down the main road to Stokesville campground for dinner. I figured I would then head back out for another loop after dark, picking off some of the easy & high-point value controls near trails and roads during the night hours to minimize my time floundering around in the woods at night.

I ended up making better time than expected, so by the time I reached #71, I decided, “why not add an extra kilometer to get #82, too?” Then things kind of snowballed from there. As you can tell from the contour lines, the terrain is relatively more flat on the western half of the map, and there also happened to be fewer briars and mountain laurel patches to contend with. I could practically jog through the woods. The “just one more” routine ended up taking me from #82, up a long spur to #47, across a broad ridgeline to #37, through some thicker brush to #91, down the road to #83, then down a painfully long creek bed to get #61 and #96 on my way back to the main road.

View from a field just south of #83

I then followed the road for another 5 miles or so back to the campground, taking brief detours to grab #56 and #98 along the way. I had to flip on the headlamp not long after leaving #98, but made it back to the campground around 2120. Although I could have easily netted more points by staying out for one large loop rather than doubling all the way back to the campground, I figured it was worth it for the chili, beer, warm campfire and pork sandwiches.

Around 2230 I headed back out for a smaller loop, climbing up the east side of Grindstone Mountain and hitting controls #87, #93, and #86. I then backtracked a little ways down the road and followed a trail up to the spur just northeast of #88, which I then found uneventfully. And then, why not, I made another small detour to pick up #34 on the way back to the campground for a second time. It was around 0300, while walking down the road, that I spotted a bobcat watching me from a few meters into the woods. So that was pretty cool. Didn’t see much else in the way of wildlife.

I made it back to the campground sometime around 0400, then took a nap from 0430 until 0600. At this point I only had another 4 controls (plus 1 bonus control) within easy walking range, so I figured I’d collect them after the sun came up.

I was pretty sore at this point, having already covered roughly 40 miles, but managed to get my legs working again and headed up a nearby stream to controls #41 and #36 – which happened to have instructions posted for finding the bonus control not marked on the map.

Instructions for bonus control #74

I measured out the distance and direction on my map, marked the spot, then headed first to #52 before then circling around to find #74 without any trouble. Finally, I ended the day by following a faint trail down another ridgeline to #63 and then returning to the finish area.

I ended up finishing #8 out of 18 in the 24 hour category.

My route, outlined in purple

Approximate total distance was 43 miles, with ~8,000′ elevation gain.

]]>https://mattandallison.wordpress.com/2017/05/09/stokesville-24-hour-rogaine-2017-edition/feed/1mattandallisonTurk Mountain and Little Calf Mountainhttps://mattandallison.wordpress.com/2017/05/09/turk-mountain-and-little-calf-mountain/
https://mattandallison.wordpress.com/2017/05/09/turk-mountain-and-little-calf-mountain/#commentsTue, 09 May 2017 19:20:04 +0000http://mattandallison.wordpress.com/?p=1932Allison and I were both a little worn out after carrying the boys 10 miles on day 1 of the trip, so we decided on a more relaxed pace for days 2 and 3.

On the second day, we spent the morning at the hotel pool (Ezra wasn’t a fan; Micah had a great time), then let the boys take a nap before driving into Shenandoah for a short afternoon hike to Turk Mountain (2.4 miles round trip, 661 feet elevation gain).

Micah and I atop Turk Mountain

Micah wanted to hike most of the way himself, but I did have to carry him up a few of the steep sections. He had a great time scrambling on the rocks at the top. Ezra seemed to enjoy the hike, too.

On the third day, we checked out of the hotel in the morning, hit the grocery store to stock up on camping food/supplies for the weekend, grabbed lunch at Cracker Barrel, then drove back into the park for one more short hike. This time Micah climbed all the way to the top of Little Calf Mountain without any assistance (3.7 miles round trip and 488 feet elevation gain, including a few short side-tracks along the way). I offered to carry him a few times, but got a firm “NO!” in response.

Micah climbing up Little Calf Mountain

Standing at the summit

Water break

So I guess this was technically Micah’s first mountain climb.

After finishing, we drove ~45 minutes to Stokesville, Virginia and met up with Allison’s parents for the camping/rogaine weekend.